eBook: The Regional City

I am going to try and get this book. I think it is print and the library should have it. I am very curious about the topic and so should anyone living in a metropolitan+suburbia such as San Francisco Bay Area. A new definition is needed for what life is in such areas. The standard story is still the same: World War II arrives and the GI go overseas many of whom are black. When overseas the black GI experienced an unusual phenomenon: People treated them as Americans and not blacks. Black GI were waited on by white folks at restaurants and had no problem with it and so on. Once they returned to US, life was not okay any more. Huge populations of them simply got up and left mostly the South. Since not many places are available for poor uneducated black American families, they headed for the best destination they could find: The cities of the Northern United States. And the ghetto was born as they arrived. The white people responded by moving out of the cities to the outlaying areas or suburbs. And such is the story of "White Migration" that made the layout of so many American cities. The social movement of the population into and around the country has changed the layout and structure of the US cities so much since then and I strongly believe a new definition is needed to understand life in complex regions such as San Francisco Bay Area. I am excited the Regional City many shed some light or even provide a good definition.

Most Americans today do not live in discrete cities and towns, but rather in an aggregation of cities and suburbs that forms one basic economic, multi-cultural, environmental and civic entity. These "regional cities" have the potential to significantly improve the quality of our lives-to provide interconnected and diverse economic centers, transportation choices, and a variety of human-scale communities. In The Regional City, two of the most innovative thinkers in the field of land use planning and design offer a detailed look at this new metropolitan form and explain how regional-scale planning and design can help direct growth wisely and reverse current trends in land use.